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I like the consept of Elder and New Gods in Malazan.The New Gods are the ancient Greek type, but the Elder are more primordial and for the most cases forgotten and no longer worsiped.To not copy Malazan, you could make the Elder(the few that are left) using the Aztec gods as a blueprint

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How about a god so lazy that it set itself up as the God of Nothing, with it presuming that doing this meant that it wouldn't have to ever do anything or deal with any annoying worshippers praying in its ear all the time.

 

Human nature being what it is, mortals got confused when they found out about a god that didn't appear to be the god of anything at all, so whenever they came across anything that didn't obviously fit into another god's domain, they naturally assumed that this domainless god was the right god for whatever thing they were worried about. So the lazy, doesnt-want-to-do-anything God of Nothing quickly found itself being worshipped as a god for every small, annoying, niggling and useless little thing out there that the other gods didn't take care of.

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I'd love to see a God of engineering and artifice. Whose temples are full of wonderous constructions and steampunk style environment. A bit like Gond from Forgotten Reamls

This God could be the origin of Fireweapons and Bombs but also Watermills and other constructions. Mostly worshipped by smiths, engineeres, builders, inventors and everybody

who builds something.

 

I also like Dionysos-like Gods of Joy, Wine, Fertility... I think their celebration days must be a blast! :D

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My god idea would be Laudrous or Whatever. Laudrous the misshapen, god of the misshapen and the crippled. Usually shown as a male in tatters with a long thin beard and difformities on his body, aborted arms, twisted legs and gibbosity. Poker-face and a golden light emanating from his eyes, he would be the defender of the victims of leprosy, war wounded, monstrous born.

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I think you should consider a pantheon composed of gods/goddesses based upon human emotions/instincts (hatred, curiosity, hope, despair and so on).

 

Gods are made up by the interactions of humanity dreams with raw magic flowing through the world. They passively grant divine powers or power for ritual arcane magic but are not sentient or active.

 

In a different way, there should be a sort of constant emanation from the gods. This MIXED emanation coalesce into the usual medieval angelic/demonic bestiary BUT without the usual christian framework of objective good and evil. Demons and angels, being "conceptual" creatures, are diveded by philosophical schools (epicurean angels, stoic demons, cynical angels, skeptical demons, nihilist angles and so on).

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I'd like gods that can be seen in history to have evolved with the people and cultures that worship it. The god itself might be immutable, but its scripture is not. Make the gods represent something fundamental to sentient life - not just the biological cycle - and have them have evolved over time. The different gods might have changed names and be considered separate by the faithful, but the scholars who peruse the old scrolls know better than the fanatics.

 

You can have more 'primordial' gods alongside this. Gods that represent the biological cycle. These need not be anthropomorphic but reflect different animal forms depending on mood and context. Sentients might try and give them anthropomorphic traits, but ultimately they only relate on the base level.

 

At an even lower level you have fundamental forces. Gods that might be perceived as thinking and acting, but who really don't. These are alien in scope, uncaring for the aberration of life. These forces seek by nature to work against anything that try to change their domain. They provide inertia against the power of souls changing reality, ultimately prohibiting mortals (and other gods) from molding creation like clay. They are what keeps mortals from truly being reality warpers.

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I think it would be nice to have a quirky god. A god of lunacy perhaps. His/her goal would be to make the world more "interesting" based on his perception of that idea. Although not evil nor good he/she would impact the players journey in different ways. Also I think it would be fun making the god dressed way different compared to everyone else. (I was thinking maybe dressed in a tux or cat suit of some sort)

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Gods who were deprived of power and died for the sins as mortal

Some of them managed to produce offspring, and even entire nations

It is completely forgotten by these people and the world

But bloody and mystical things as punishment pursues their descendants, making escape from themselves or to seek knowledge, or go crazy)

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The Embraceable God, a.k.a the Facehugger God. No matter how grim, dark and mature the world might be, I suspect there should be some good Gods as well. Every Greek God practically has a Yin perspective and a Yang perspective (It depends on how you look at it). Aphrodite could be a gluttonous, morbid presentation of Lust, rather than a graceful sexual thing it'd be darker and grimmer (even more so than God of War). Athena could be a Goddess of senseless War & Destruction, without little remorse of the onslaught of her passing in her chariot. Likewise she could be the opposite, a strategist and a good friend, a wise Goddess that teaches a lesson rather than punishing.

 

Final Fantasy VI has an interesting demon entity (Phunbaba).

phunbaba.jpg?cda6c1

 

31-15072011_105008.png

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How about an endgame revelation that the gods were all once mortals (at least as far as the current gods are aware) and that the process of deification requires the sacrifice/consumption of a vast quantity of mortal souls. Consequently, whatever the apparant alignment of any god at present, in order to acquire their current power they had to perpetrate a spectacular act of evil. One endgame option should allow the player to follow suit.

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Personally, I'd like to see a moderately small pantheon (5-13) of gods whose power is completely unrelated to the number of their followers. It was a nice twist in the 80s and a perfectly sound explanation for godly interrelations and terrestrial spheres of influence. Since it became almost the default, I have grown tired of it. Also, I'm all for leaving the typical Graeco-Latin/Norse pantheons with very human gods aside.

 

I'd like to have...

  • Gods that represent broad categories of things, including seemingly unrelated domains that make sense only for them
  • Gods concentrate above all on their domains and think only in terms of these - they should not even be able to understand the other's domains or what needs humanoids have. Example: Siku, the gender-neutral god of weather, wind, thunder, water-in-the-air (fog, snow, rain, steam), breath, sound, voice and vibration, who often appears as a not-at-all human-shaped cloud, will help a suffocating child, commenting that "the air must flow" or destroy half a city in a thunderstorm with the same reason, but he doesn't care for anything water-related once it's on the ground (rivers, springfloods, ...) or if a fire burns or not. Sometimes he gets angry at dead or dying beings because they stop to breathe or to produce water vapor. He does like a good burp or wet fart, however, which means you'll find him in the vicinity of cows and pigs. His worshippers - mostly peasants begging for rain and wanting to keep hail away - favour fans, wind wheels, hot water kettles or perfume sprays.
  • PCs should be able to pray at temples to gain small bonuses to something domain-related, if they observe the god's rules and taboos. Prayer or small rites might be implemented as activating an optional "idle animation" akin to the "/dance" command in GuildWars or as a series of mini-quests you get at temples. Taboos: A follower of Siku might not be allowed to hunt flying birds (or worse, to close doors) to be able to hold his breath twice as long when diving (if diving the moat to get into a castle by the sewers is an option for the game) or maybe, he gains some resistance to air spells. NPCs should react differently to devout people and certain areas might only be accessible to practitioners of a certain faith (at least without attacking the temple guards).

For a god, I'd like to propose...

Rotsch (the Indigo Traveller, the Mirror Man, the Thousand-Faced Asker, the Slicer) - Rotsch is immensely powerful. His thoughts and reasons are unfathomable. He even has followers. That makes him a god, or does it? The theologians of several cultures still debate it, because Rotsch seems to study the world while gods usually create the world. Rotsch is known to appear anywhere as a member of the same race as the onlooker. He is always clad in a simple robe and walking barefooted - he doesn't seem to understand the concept of a ride or vehicle. He is deeply interested in anything alive... in a way a researcher is deeply interested in lab mice. He always remains calm and friendly, asks questions about everything from everyday life to the usage of tools, to peculiar anatomy questions. For example, he might inquire why humanoids have softer skin than most other species. Or why it is that humans think they are smarter than chicken when the latter can still walk around when their head is removed. Even if the question sounds silly or outright mad, if the asker wears something indigo-coloured, you better have an answer that will suffice. If you don't answer him, or answer him in a way he finds implausible, he will try to find out himself. Sometimes, that means he takes up a pitchfork and moves manure for a couple of hours (sometimes to unexpected places if he isn't shown the "correct" way of doing it). Sometimes, it means he spawns sharp claws and tries to dissect the subject of interest. If he is attacked, he vanishes and immediately reappears a couple of steps away to continue his current experiment. The only way to get rid of him is to give him an answer that he will accept. A follower of Rotsch will become an experimental researcher himself and sacrifice notebooks full of obscure information on nature and culture.

The other gods - those who represent primal forces or concepts - will deny that Rotsch exists. Maybe it's a taboo, maybe they really cannot perceive him.

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Liantefaron, male Elven Ranger, Lawful/Good Light-hearted/Generous

"Watch your grammar, for gods' sake! Locative aldasse, not Dative aldan. Elves do not mate with trees, they mate on trees."

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God of Mortality

 

The portfolio of this god would be: mortality, hedonism, heroism, rebirth, immortality (see text)

 

What's unique to this god? Every day the god is born anew, every day he/she dies and becomes an entirely new person. This god represents the pursuit to life to the fullest everyday since it can be the last day of your life. Thus, although he/she is a god of mortality - it aspires to create things or events that will make him/her immortal in the memory of others. It is a fickle god, whose personality changes each day.

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How about Steve Buscemi, god of the individual forks of lightning that sprout from the main branches of a lightning strike.

 

He was once a mortal who - obsessed with the concept of godhood - somehow managed to actually come into contact with one of them and was summarily converted into a being of pure ridiculousness.

 

Fully aware of the stupidity of his current situation, he spent the next 10 years having to explain to everyone he came into contact with what happened at least 3 times each, and found it utterly confusing that some of them actually decided to worship him afterwards. After all he was not given any godlike abilities or qualities, he was simply named as such.

 

His journeys, travels and subsequent demise at the hands of a phallic-shaped falling tree branch are documented in the 300-page epic "The Death of a Gdo" which unfortunately suffered from an obvious misprint at release.

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Well, I actually have two suggestions.

One of them (inspired by the skyrim Dwemer plot) is that the gods have actually disappeared, but they have left there marks in the world ...maybe some temples, some signs of their former existence ... However, here you get to do what you failed in Skyrim - you get to bring them back ... Search them, activate some mystic altars and perform some rituals, sacrifice a lamb or two, do whatever it takes to restore some of the old glory to the benefit of some races - or the doom of others. Would be some rich plot options in this.

 

Another suggestions I like a lot as well is that Gods exist, but nobody is so sure of that, because they have gone into hiding - as "normal" people. So basically everyone and everybody you meet could be a god, and it depends on your actions during the game if they reveal themselves to you or not. Adds some effect of surprise and consequence.

 

Let me know if you think those are any good, would love to discuss continuous plots/storylines for those two ideas.

 

"And may a projective EternitY be with you."

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I want a god like Q from start track, constantly bored with his omnipotence and therefore constantly trying to find something to entertain him. Whether that's screwing up your day, (like a bored kid using a magnifying glass to burn ants) or manipulating those lesser beings into doing interesting things, or just plainly going around theatres and trying to find the best musicians around, for a quick fix. Doesn't care much about how much the world goes out of whack because of what he does.

 

I used to have a DnD campaign where Olidamara had made a parade through the woodlands of musicians like a marching band. Everyone with some musical talent would have to pass a will save or be swept up and become part of the marching band, where they would play till they dropped dead from exhaustion. This clogged up the main road through the forest, ruined the nights rest for most of nature nearby (loud noise) but produced an amazing spectacle. Non-musicians would need to pass a will save or be enthralled by the music.

That's the type of boredom solutions I expect from gods.

Remember: Argue the point, not the person. Remain polite and constructive. Friendly forums have friendly debate. There's no shame in being wrong. If you don't have something to add, don't post for the sake of it. And don't be afraid to post thoughts you are uncertain about, that's what discussion is for.
---
Pet threads, everyone has them. I love imagining Gods, Monsters, Factions and Weapons.

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I love the pantheon in Sacrifice

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacrifice_(video_game)

S_screenshot14.jpg

 

depending on how the whole soul thing is implemented:

a soul devouring god of creativity, her followers worship her and its an honor to have your soul stripped from you by her (if you worship her, else it kinda sucks) .

she uses the souls to stay creative herself... very idle and vain

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I'd love to see a God of engineering and artifice. Whose temples are full of wonderous constructions and steampunk style environment. A bit like Gond from Forgotten Reamls

This God could be the origin of Fireweapons and Bombs but also Watermills and other constructions. Mostly worshipped by smiths, engineeres, builders, inventors and everybody

who builds something.

 

I also like Dionysos-like Gods of Joy, Wine, Fertility... I think their celebration days must be a blast! :D

Like the Builders in thief?

 

I'd enjoy a god of lost causes, god of the underdog, and a lady luck.

I also thought Terry Pratchett's take on gods (Small gods) was pretty interesting.

Remember: Argue the point, not the person. Remain polite and constructive. Friendly forums have friendly debate. There's no shame in being wrong. If you don't have something to add, don't post for the sake of it. And don't be afraid to post thoughts you are uncertain about, that's what discussion is for.
---
Pet threads, everyone has them. I love imagining Gods, Monsters, Factions and Weapons.

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While I'm unsure it would fit with the setting (minimal resurrection magic and all), I've always loved the idea of a god of death who in order to communicate with his priests had to bring them to death's door.

 

If they wanted to communicate with him, they'd have to near fatally injure themselves. If he wanted to speak to them? Well, let's just say that his head priest has been struck by lightning over twenty times, hit by a runaway carriage at least a half dozen, trampled by an angry mob twice, and attacked by an amorous yeti once.

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I really liked some of the gods in D&D, especially Cyric and Mask. But I love tricksters since I often play rogues. So I guess what I would like to see are patron gods that suit your race/class/playstyle.

 

Gods like the "Goddess of Spoons Stuck in Draws" as seen in Discworld are also great fun but that would not fit in a more serious fantasy setting.

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